Diamond electronics can provide significant advances in high power and high frequency electronics, radiation detectors for medical and military applications, and UV optoelectronics due to exceptional material properties like large bandgap energy (5.5 eV), the breakdown electric field (10 MV/cm), the carrier mobilities (˜2200 and ˜1600 cm2/Vs for electrons and holes resp.), the thermal conductivity (10-20 W/cmK), the low dielectric constant (5.5), and the excellent resistance to radiation. Requisite for diamond electronics is the preparation of n-type and p-type material, the building blocks for discrete semiconductors.
While p-type diamond can be readily obtained through boron doping, n-type doping is still challenging especially for (100) oriented diamond surfaces. Various approaches for increased doping efficiency have focused on off-axis surfaces where the (100) surface is polished at an angle to establish a boundary that has been shown to promote the incorporation of phosphorus impurities. However, these approaches have suffered from repeatability and reliability issues, and most electronically suitable n-type diamond devices are still prepared from (111) wafers which limits the device properties and has a disadvantage in cost and maximum wafer size.
Thus, there is a need for new methods and devices for increasing doping efficiency in diamond surfaces.